The invention disclosed herein pertains generally to fish scalers, and more particularly to hand held devices for cleaning a fish by removing scales from the fish.
Various hand-held devices are known for cleaning fish, including the removal of scales. Typically, such devices include a handle and a scraping element connected to the handle, with the scraping element having a plurality of serrated teeth. In use, one removes the scales from a fish by scraping the surface of the fish with the serrated teeth of the scraping element.
Two prior art hand-held fish cleaning devices having apparatus for cleaning the scraping elements are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,086 issued to Sexton and U.S. Pat. No. 2,884,658 issued to Johnson.
The Sexton patent (U.S. Pat. No. 3,667,086) discloses a hand held fish scaling device wherein a scaling blade is constantly washed with water. This scaling device has a handle with a longitudinal passage extending throughout the length of the handle. Connected to a front end of the handle is an elongate mounting member which has recesses both in its upper surface and in its sides. A scraping element having serrated teeth, and a hood structure are both removably connected to an upper surface of the elongate mounting member. In use, water flows through the passage in the handle and into the recesses in the elongate mounting member to wash the scraping element during a scraping operation.
The Johnson patent (U.S. Pat. No. 2,884,658) discloses a hand held device for removing the outer layer of skin of a precooked, eviscerated fish rather than the scales of a fish. This device includes a hob with bristles or knives attached to its outer surface, which hob is rotated by an air motor. In operation, angled jets of air, coming from a tubular member having angularly directed perforations, are used to keep the hob clean.
In general, fish cleaning (and the removal of fish scales from the surface of a fish) is considered an unpleasant task. The unpleasantness results because fish cleaning is often an inefficient process wherein the same scales need to be scraped more than once before they are removed from the body of the fish. In addition, the scraping of the fish must be intermittently stopped to brush or wash away the loose scales and debris produced during a scrapingg operation. This cleaning action typically prolongs the time needed to scale the fish. Furthermore, an unpleasant fishy odor emanating from the fish must be endured during the fish scaling operation.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for efficiently cleaning a fish by hand.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a hand-held apparatus for removing the scales from a fish while simultaneously washing the fish with water.
Apparatus for removing the scales from a fish, according to the present invention, includes a handle and a scraping element connected to said handle. The scraping element includes at least one row, and preferably two rows of serrated teeth projecting from a front surface of the scraping element, as well as a bracket which channels water, loose scales, and debris in a direction away from a person holding the handle. A relatively large water carrying tube is affixed to the handle. Projecting from a rear end of the water carrying tube is an internally threaded tubular member to which a water conduit may be connected. A valve in the water carrying tube permits a user to regulate the flow of water through the tube.
Projecting from a front end of the relatively large water carrying tube are two relatively small tubes, each of which is positioned on the scraping element adjacent one of the two rows of serrated teeth. Each of these small tubes has angled holes from which jets of water issue to wash the fish being scraped. These jets of water are angled so as to strike the scales of a fish before the scales are engaged by the serrated teeth.
The present invention is advantageous because the jets of water issuing from the two small tubes wash the fish during the scraping operation, avoiding the need to intermittently stop the scraping operation to brush away loose scales and debris. In addition, the washing of the fish prevents loose scales and debris from accumulating between the teeth of the scraping element, avoiding the need to clean the teeth.
The present invention is also advantageous because the jets of water issuing from the two small tubes act in cooperation with the serrated teeth to increase the efficiency of the scaling operation. That is, as the jets of water strike the surface of the fish, they tend to lift the scales from the body of the fish before the scales are engaged by the serrated teeth. Thus, just one pass of the serrated teeth over a fish scale is often sufficient to remove that scale from the body of the fish.